Heart To Break
by MichiamoNicola
Summary: College freshman Bella has left behind Phoenix for the bright lights of Chicago, where she meets her charismatic roommate Alice and learns some interesting things about her... and herself. AU, OOC Alice/Bella fic, rated M for future content.


"We're going to miss you, honey."

I turned to look at my mom, who I knew would have tears in her eyes, and Phil, who was shockingly also tearing up.

"Mom, you're hardly going to have a spare moment to miss me. You and Phil are going to be on the road all the time, you know it will be me checking in to see how you're doing and not the other way around," I teased light-heartedly. This was half-true, I had been like a mom to my own mother before she met Phil. She was so scatter-brained that I'd often have to remind her that yes you did take the trash can out to the curb already and your sunglasses are already sitting on top of your head.

She sighed. "That's probably true. I'm sure Mike will miss you even more, I'm sorry he couldn't make it out here to help you settle in and say goodbye."

It was my turn to sigh now. I had to leave my boyfriend Mike back in Phoenix, he started an apprenticeship at his dad's garage last week and couldn't take the time off to drive out to Chicago with us before I started classes at University of Chicago. We had been dating ever since sophomore year and we were supposed to go to college together. That all changed after I got accepted everywhere and he got accepted nowhere. We'd spent our whole summer coming up with our plan B, which was working for his father while taking classes at the community college in Phoenix so he could apply for spring admissions.

"It's all for the best mom. He needs to work and study so he can make it out here in the spring, plus it gives me a semester to focus on my studies and think about my major."

"I thought you had already decided on your major in creative writing? That's what we had on all your graduation announcements, I don't want to have to tell Grandma Swan that there was a printing error after she's already put it on her refrigerator," she quizzed me, looking worried. I knew she would be worried about telling Grandma Swan, they haven't been on great terms since my mom and dad divorced when I was a kid. Grandma Swan was very judgemental of mom.

"I still want to give myself some time to explore other options, I don't want to declare a major and then decide halfway through it's not what I want to do, it would be a waste of time. But if I haven't changed my mind by May, then I'll major in creative writing."

I walked up to the fold-out table with a cardboard sign attached, labelled 'New Freshman Housing Assignments!', which was being manned by an overly-enthusiastic girl in a white polo with the UChicago crest.

"Hi! I'm Jessica, one of the RAs here at UChicago. What's your name so I can find your hall and room number?" she asked, her pen poised at her clipboard.

"I'm Bella – sorry, Isabella Swan," I stammered.

She ran her pen down the clip board, stopping towards the bottom. "Perfect! You're in International House, and in the Breckenridge community which is who I'm the RA of! Welcome! You'll be in room 211 and it looks like you're the first in your dorm to check in, so enjoy your last few minutes of quiet before the fun begins!" she squeaked, "Here is a map of the building, a guide to living in the halls and of course, your social calendar! Tonight is Freshman orientation night, and tomorrow is the Freshman Scavenger hunt to help you get to know the people you'll be living with as well as get to know the great city of Chicago!"

I thanked her and walked back to mom and Phil, who were pulling my boxes and suitcases out of the car.

"Freshman orientation night?" Mom questioned as she read through the social calendar, "No alcohol please, you've only just turned 18 and I don't want to get a call at 1am to say that you're in hospital with alcohol poisoning."

I rolled my eyes at her. Of course, now that I had moved out she was mothering me. "Mom, you know that I know better than that. Besides, you know I can't even smell alcohol without wanting to puke." This was true, one bad experience with cooking wine and I was done for life.

We made it to my dorm and slowly started to piece together my new home for the next year and once the last box was unpacked I said my goodbyes to mom and Phil, both hugging me tearfully before going back to their car to drive back to Phoenix.

It was still early in the day and I had nothing left to do until the Freshman orientation night, so I picked up my phone and FaceTimed Mike. He picked up straight away with a big smile that I returned.

"Hey my smart, college girlfriend, how is Chicago?"

"Mom and Phil just left and my roommate hasn't arrived yet, so I'm all alone. How is working at the garage going?"

Mike made a face. "It would be fine if I wasn't working for my dad. All he does at home is bug me about work stuff, I can't escape it."

"When do you start your classes at the community college?" I asked.

"Next week, I'm so excited to start them and come to Chicago next spring, this is going to be the longest time we've been apart since we met," Mike pouted.

We had never spent more than a few days apart since we started dating, his family had invited me on their vacations and mom and Phil had invited him on mine. The longest we had been apart was a week each summer that I went to visit my dad in Washington, and even that felt too long.

I could hear footsteps outside my door and the distinct rattle of a key being put into the door.

"I gotta go, my roommate has just arrived, but I'll message you later okay? I love you," I said to Mike.

"Love you too, Bella."

I disconnected the call as my roommate entered, all 5 feet of her.

"Hi roomie! Isn't this exciting?" she exclaimed, bounding in with a suitcase. A couple who I assumed to be her parents walked in behind her, carrying large boxes. The man huffed as he watched her drop her suitcase on the floor and fling herself backwards onto her bed.

"Alice, what did we say about getting everything put away before settling yourself in?" he reminded her gently.

She took the box from his arms and dropped it onto the bed, ripping it open and pulling everything out of it. This girl was an absolute whirlwind.

She seemed to remember where she was and she swivelled to face me with a beaming smile, her hand stuck out for me to shake.

"Hi, I'm Alice! I'm so excited to be here, I just know we're going to be best friends!"

I shook her hand, intimidated by her energy. "I'm Bella."

"Bella," she repeated, "I hope you're ready to have a great academic year and study hard!" She turned back to her parents who had placed all her boxes on her side of the room. "Thanks mom and dad! You can leave now."

"Remember, we're expecting a photo of your living space by the end of the day," her mom reprimanded her, "You need to make sure everything is put away and tidy."

Alice blew them a kiss as they walked out the door and rolled her eyes once the door was closed.

"My parents, honestly. You'd think they would treat me like an adult since I am one, but you have one teeny tiny sleepover with your partner and they lose it. What are your parents like?"

"Well, they're divorced and I basically had to mother my mom until she got married again. She's a bit scatterbrained. I don't know my father that well, he's pretty quiet," I explained.

"Oh god, I am so sorry, please forgive me for being so insensitive!" Alice apologised in a high-pitched voice.

"It's fine, I was young when they split and my step-dad is great."

Alice breathed out a sigh of relief then turned back to her boxes. "I don't know what your wardrobe looks like, but you look like you're my size even though you're like six inches taller than me."

Her suitcase must have been from Mary Poppins, she just kept pulling more and more clothes out until her entire bed resembled a clearance sale table at Abercrombie and Fitch.

"So," she started, making conversation as she started hanging up her wardrobe, "Do you know anyone else here?"

I shook my head. "I'm here all alone, my boyfriend applied but didn't get in, so he's going to the community college back in Phoenix so he can get into the spring admissions program."

Alice snapped around like she had been slapped. "Boyfriend? You have a boyfriend?" she sounded surprised.

I felt a little offended. "Yeah, I have a boyfriend. What's so surprising about that?"

"Nothing, I just thought – never mind. Hey, you can have this, it's too long for me so it will probably fit you."

She tossed me a houndstooth peacoat that looked very expensive. If this was her peace offering, I wasn't going to complain.

"You said you were from Phoenix so I know you're not going to have a warm enough coat for winter."

"Oh, thanks. You didn't have to, I can buy a coat myself."

"No please, you're doing me a service, my ex gave it to me so I don't really want it anymore anyway."

I had to give it to her, although she complained about putting everything away she did it fast and with precision. Within ten minutes her whole wardrobe had been sorted, hung up in order and shoe collection arranged on a shoe rack.

Alice was putting the finishing touches on her desk, which she had restyled as a beauty station, when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find the RA from earlier, Jessica, standing there with a big smile on her face.

"Hi ladies! Welcome to Breck! I'm Jessica, your RA, I'm here to make sure you have a fun and safe time here at UChicago! I just wanted to let you know that there is a welcome party in the commons this afternoon so you can meet some fellow Brecks before the Freshman orientation night tonight!"

Alice appeared by my side at the mention of a party. "Is there going to be booze at either of these parties?" she questioned Jessica.

"All freshman events are strictly alcohol-free. You are all still underage and I will not be the person responsible for picking you up and putting you to bed while you're covered in your own vomit. There is to be no alcohol kept in dorm rooms either, if we find any during a room inspection it will be confiscated and reported to the Resident Head," Jessica rattled off like she was reading from a script.

Alice just stared at her blankly. "So as long as we're not drinking in our dorm rooms or at a freshman event it's free game then?"

Jessica just stammered a couple of times, trying to come up with a way around Alice's question while I held back my laughter. Jessica eventually just walked off to accost the next lot of freshman that had just moved in.

Alice pulled a locked box out from under her bed before grabbing a roll of white packing tape. "I guess I'm going to have to get crafty then. I imagine Jessica would definitely not want to open up a big box of dildos."

She pulled the lid off the box to reveal a mini bar. Miniature bottles of vodka, gin, whisky, Jägermeister, tequila, all the alcohol under the sun. Taking the roll of packing tape, she tore off a strip with her teeth and stuck it on the lid of the box, writing "ALICE'S DILDOS" in big bold letters on it.

"How did you get all this alcohol?" I wondered, amazed at the large stash she seemed to have kept hidden from her parents during her move-in.

"My parents host these big functions all the time that I used to have to work and they'd use the mini bottles of liquor to serve guests, so I'd just flirt with the bartender and they'd give them to me," she said with a smirk.

She pulled out two of the mini bottles of vodka and handed one to me. "To breaking the rules and freshman year!" she toasted.

We clinked bottles and she downed hers in a second. I took a small sniff of mine and nearly dry-heaved, so I plugged my nose and swallowed it in one. It burnt my throat and my eyes watered, so I knew it was going to take effect soon.

"Alright Bella, let's go see what this welcome party is all about."

I would hardly have called the welcome party a party. For starters, a party generally has people dancing to music, eating snacks, drinking and having a good time. No one seemed to be having a good time at this 'party'. We walked in the room, did a round to scope everyone out, and then walked back to our dorm.

By this time, I was feeling the effects of the vodka and was a little light-headed as Alice dragged me back into the dorm room.

She looked at me through squinted eyes. "Have you ever drunk alcohol before? You're buzzed off a shot."

I shook my head and hiccupped. "One time my mom put too much cooking wine in her bolognaise sauce and I painted the bathroom red. It was not a great experience. Whenever we went to parties in high school I was the designated driver for my boyfriend Mike and my friends."

Alice stifled a giggle as I mentioned Mike but composed herself again. "I'm sorry, it's just too weird to me that you have a boyfriend. Anyway, I kind of want to ditch this freshman orientation night but I also want to go so that we can meet someone there who might know where there is a better party. What do you think?"

I nodded along with her. "I think that sounds like a good idea. Will this other party have booze?"

"I hope to god it does. I'm going to start getting ready, what about you?"

"What about me?"

She gestured to my body. "Are you going to start getting ready?"

I looked down at my outfit. Blue jeans, boots and a sweater. "I was just going to wear this."

"Oh sweetie no. I know you have a boyfriend and all but I am single, I need to kiss someone tonight and you're my wing woman. I can't have my wing woman looking like this otherwise no one will want to talk to me. I'll dress you, do your hair and makeup, and you can repay me later. Deal?"

Alice spent the next half hour going through her closet, picking out her outfit first and then one for me. "It has to be cute, but not so cute that you upstage me." She settled on a red and black plaid pleated skirt with a plain black cropped tee for me, and then went more daring with a black lacy bodysuit paired with a pair of skin-tight pleather pants for herself.

"You're showing just enough body that you look good, but not too much that you upstage me. Now, put these Doc Martens on because I know that if I put you in anything with a heel you'll fall flat on your face once you get some alcohol in you."

That was a safe choice. I fell flat on my face even when I was sober. Alice opted for a pair of black stiletto boots for herself, bringing her height up closer to mine.

She pulled out two more of her mini booze bottles, more vodka this time.

"Okay wing woman, let's go to this stupid freshman thing so we can find the real party." We clinked bottles again and Alice stuffed several mini bottles into the top of her jeans and handed me a few as well.

"Hide these in your bra, even if any kind of security finds them, they can't legally touch you there so you're safe."

I stuffed the bottles into my bra, trying to position them so that they didn't look so obvious, before heading down to the common area.

To say that this was a party was a severe misuse of the word party. There was a trestle table with a couple of bags of crisps and a bowl of non-alcoholic punch that Jessica was watching like a hawk to make sure no-one spiked it.

Alice sighed as she surveyed the room. "Okay, I'm going to do a lap and see if anyone knows of any frat parties or sorority mixers happening tonight, there must be _something_ happening in this boring school."

I looked around at the people in the room, it was highly unlikely that she would find anything better than this sorry excuse for a party.

I took a cup of the punch so I had somewhere to put my hands. I had just finished it off when Alice came scurrying over, looking excited.

"Okay, we've got our plan B. Now I need you to distract Jessica until I'm out of the room, and then you follow me, got it?"

I was a little confused, but noticed Jessica was still guarding the punch bowl. "Are you going to spike the punch?"

"Nope, I'm going to steal it. Here she comes," she said, slipping away as Jessica approached me with a smile.

"Hi! Bella, right? Are you enjoying yourself?" Jessica asked with a smile. I was still trying to understand why Alice would want to steal the entire bowl of punch, but I wasn't going to question it now.

"Hi, Jessica right? Yeah, I'm having a great time!" I enthused, trying to sound as engaging as I could. We were silent for a moment until I noticed Jessica start to look around. Alice was standing behind the punch bowl, gesturing wildly for me to keep the conversation going before she was caught by the hawk-like RA.

Just as Jessica was about to look directly at Alice and the punch bowl, I grabbed her arm to turn her back to me. "So Jessica, what are you majoring in?" I knew that topic would keep her going long enough to let Alice get away.

Alice gave me a thumbs up as she steadily picked the bowl up with two hands, Jessica jabbering away in my ear about some kind of social work and kids with behavioural problems. I interjected when needed with my 'yeah's and 'wow's and even a 'that's really cool' towards the end until Alice had successfully made her way out of the room, motioning for me to hurry along before Jessica noticed an entire bowl of fruit juice was missing.

"Yeah look I'll think about my major some more, but that's super helpful thank you," I interrupted what Jessica was saying and started to walk towards the door. Jessica looked a little confused, but moved on to another group of freshmen who seemed to be dancing a little too close with each other for her comfort.

While she was busy reprimanding them on the dangers of pre-marital sex, I bolted for the door and Alice started to speed-walk towards the stairs all while keeping the bowl steady as not to spill any punch.

"We've got about two minutes before she realises there is something wrong with the snack table and I'm not talking about the fact that there are no corn nuts," Alice said in a hushed voice as we descended the stairs, the music from the common area growing fainter.

"So why are we stealing a bowl of punch since I didn't get to ask before?" I asked as we started rounding the corner away from the building. I hoped Alice knew where she was going because I hadn't had a chance to explore the campus yet.

"I received intel that Delta Gamma and Delta Upsilon are joining forces to host a welcome back party tonight at the Delta Upsilon house, but they'll only allow freshmen if they bring an offering for the 'greek gods'" Alice said in air quotes, "So we are bringing the punch so that they let us in."

"No offence Alice, but I don't think a fraternity is going to let us into a big party if we're offering them a big bowl of juice."

Alice tapped the side of her nose, wiggling her eyebrows at me. "Ahh you're catching on fast, young Bella. That is correct. A big bowl of punch will get us covered in punch on the porch of a frat house, but a big bowl of _spiked _punch will gain us entry into one of the hottest parties of the year." She patted the bottles on her hip as we continued through the park, seeing a sign pointing towards fraternity row.

We reached the DU house and we could hear a thudding bass even though it was still early in the night.

We walked up to the door and Alice knocked on it with the big, brass door knocker, the sound echoing through the house. The door opened and a tall boy with curly, blonde hair appeared, squinting his eyes at us.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

Alice held up the punch bowl. "We've come to appease the Greek gods with an offering in exchange for party entrance."

He looked down at the punch bowl in Alice's hands. "How do I know this isn't just juice and ginger ale and that there is actually alcohol in this?"

"We will add the alcohol once we're inside so you can see us add it," Alice answered confidently.

He hesitated for a moment before opening the door wider to allow us in. "Follow me."

We followed him upstairs to what looked like a study. A large, burly man who looked to be a senior sat in a throne with a wreath of branches on his head. They took this Greek god business seriously.

He lifted his chin as he saw Alice enter with the punch. He motioned for us to come forward and place the punch bowl on the table in front of him.

"Name?"

"Alice, and this is Bella."

He sniffed at the punch bowl. "This smells straight."

"We wanted to spike it in front of you so you wouldn't think we were lying."

Alice pulled the bottles from her jeans and I reached for the ones stashed in my bra, twisting them open and dumping them ceremoniously in the bowl.

The Greek god smiled to himself as he dipped a cup into the punch. He took a sip and swished it around before swallowing.

"Where did you get the punch from?"

"We stole it from the freshman orientation night," Alice answered. He chuckled at her response.

"And the booze?"

"Stolen from my parents."

He nodded as he pondered. "Any way of getting anymore?"

"Not until I go home for Thanksgiving. Seattle is a long way away. But I'm very persuasive with the right tools."

He nodded again before motioning for the curly-haired guy to come over to us. "This is Jasper, he is an expert in fake IDs and can hook you two up for a small fee. But I am pleased with your offering and you are welcome at any party at Delta Upsilon."

Jasper came over to us with a polaroid camera in his hand. "I'll take your photos and you can pay me on Monday. Delivery is on Wednesdays so they're ready for the weekend."

I started to feel a little nervous. "We won't get caught out with these right?"

"No one has ever been caught out with one of my IDs. You're 100% safe, as long as you're confident."

He snapped a photo of my face and I blinked away the white spots, not too sure of what I'd gotten myself into.

The burly man stood up and slung his muscled arms around Alice and I. "I'm Emmett, welcome to your first frat party ladies."

I'd heard about frat parties being wild, but this was next level. I felt like Alice and I were overdressed compared to some of the sorority girls in here.

Speaking of Alice, she'd kept her cup in that punch bowl the whole time we'd been here while scouring the room for her next suitor. She was starting to sway on her feet slightly and her eyes would close longer when she blinked.

I'd been trying my best to be a good wing woman, but with every guy I pointed out she would shoot them down almost instantly.

"Bella, he's really not my type," she said as she shot down the fifth guy I'd noticed staring at her from across the room.

"I feel like if you talked to him a little bit you might change your mind," I offered, trying to give this poor guy a chance.

Alice scoffed. "Babe, trust me, no amount of talking to him is going to make me more interested in him than I am now."

I huffed. The alcohol I'd been drinking was making me a little snarky. "Okay, you've turned down everyone I have suggested. I'm trying to be a good wing woman here Alice!"

"Well if you want to be a better wing woman and actually help me, it might be a good idea to actually ask me what my type is before you point out all these bland white boys," she shot back.

"Fine, what is your type then Alice?" I asked with my brow raised.

She smirked at me and answered before taking a sip of her punch. "Girls."

I choked a little on my cup of punch. "Girls?"

"Mmhmm. See Bella, look at the things you learn when you ask the right questions. And if you want to know what type of girl I'm into, I don't mind blondes but I definitely prefer brunettes."


End file.
